Rabidchaos

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From how the people I know have aged, 'middle-aged' seems significantly more flexible than just calendar decades. A couple people in their sixties are active enough physically and mentally to keep up with most mid-forties people, whereas some others in...

Sadly, not really on any body with an atmosphere. Orbital speed is very, very fast, and decelerating in space is just as energy-sapping as accelerating in the first place. The closest we can get to decelerating for free is hitting...

I don't think "Trump and Pence both being impeached" would have an appreciable effect. Anyone finding themselves suddenly in the hot seat (not to mention the rest of Congress) will be quite eager for some good, unite-us-all, news....

My experience with Fedora of late (the last decade or so) hasn't been terribly unstable. Until I started ***ing with the graphics drivers, but that's on me! Mind, be careful you don't wind up on the testing branch, cuz there...

People are really bad at keeping an accurate record of how bad the past was in their heads. The really great things get even greater, the really bad things get even worse, and everything else fades into a muddle. And...

the cheapest thing most people ever come in contact with = Air? Linkie or hint, please? This applicator might be out of most people's pocketbooks (depending on the state of your country's armed forces), and its fuel consumption will definitely...

That's a problem that's been on people's minds for a while now. A couple years ago (I think? Anyhow, it's been a while) I came across an article on genetically engineering bacteria to produce a particular plastic. I can't find...

...kids from expensive private schools. They have the same problem: athletics/extracurriculars are privileged over academics*. That depends on the school interplay between the school-wide culture and individual subcultures. My high school worked hard to counter that with all of the...

"Sorry, but this stuff is basic. Talk about weapons and tanks, sure. But please." Isn't peat somewhat acidic? Anyhow, weapons and tanks are simple things of metal, modelled and simulated in games and stories. Even rocketry is fairly straightforward compared...

"BTW, to me it seems as though what the AI would be doing here is mostly a bunch/series of nested regressions (like SEM). Is that the secret to AI, or am I missing something?" I don't have a good grasp...

"Computers, yes. Software? Not so much. As others have noted, AI software often reaches its conclusions for reasons that can't be explained and that its inventors don't remotely understand." Slight correction: the old tendency is where the inventors and few...

I believe the more prevalent generic term for what you call the "Black Bloc" is Antifa. Very few in number, but way more attention-grabby than the rest of us. Wired did a run down not too long ago (I can't...

W.R.T. reliable enough rain: How much of the unreliability is total/season, and how much is the same amount getting clumped into worse storms separated by longer dry spells? Tankage can't help when total throughput is too low, but can cover...

"I have a suspicion that the big-gun tank will go extinct. closely followed by attack helicopters" You should pay more attention to Israel's developments. Specifically: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Fist_(countermeasure) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophy_(countermeasure) Say what you want about their politics/humanitarian, they've been developing weapons in directions...

"It's worth noting that heavy* crossbows cannot be cocked by hand (unless you're Conan.) They require a specially geared crank or a pulley system which means that reload times really, really suck." The gearing/block-and-tackle is what I meant by clockwork....

"The Nukes won't launch. If you think Stuxnet was kinky, whelp.... hacking ancient COBOL machines is easy. Blame all those Airmen playing games on their phones." Remember the most important rule of military planning: treat your stuff pessimistically and their...

"2050: You're counting on your Satellite networks to still exist and your undersea cables to be intact. This is... somewhat naive.[1] [1] None of you are even going near the MRI / EM stuff. Ooooops. That's a mistake. Big, Huuuuge,...

"Computer people are so fond of the "Put crap in, get crap out" meme, well." We do like that one a lot. Of course, it assumes that the process is sound, otherwise it becomes "Put anything in, get crap out"....

"Crossbows and conventional small longbows (shortbows?)" Quick run down in modern terms: Bow is the generic. Note: these required specialist training. Longbow is the long-range, anti-armour variant exclusively used by specialists trained from childhood. Shortbow is the carbine variant, used...

That first one's getting a lot better. More and more AAA publisher's are either paying for porting or building cross-platform from the start. Art wise, there's always Blender and GIMP, with the very well known trade-offs there....

Keep in mind, we're talking about large scale events. Things will move slowly, until they gather a critical mass and really pick up steam. I wouldn't describe the article I linked as the end of the carbon bubble, merely the...

Comment Threads

Anyway... That wasn't quite what I was asking (should have been more precise). Those with more money than sense will buy their supercars, no doubt. What about the 20-year-olds? What will they do, when cars are no longer a thing you own?...

I find this insistence that private cars would vanish strange. Doesn't anyone of you shop on the way home from work? At more than one shop, too? Do you plan to take 2 cases of empties and the cooler box and the bags inside at your workplace (and do you have space for all that)? Do you plan to spend 3 hours shopping instead of 1 because you would have to return home after each shop, given that you can't take goods you bought at shop 1 inside shop 2 if they sell them too, and you no longer have...

Doesn't work like that for me. Answers in order: - Yes. - No. Not an option for me. - Doesn't work like that here. Empties are recycled through local council pickup; cooler box is not a thing I have; bags, sure, why not. - YMMV but here we are offered paper receipts; you can demonstrate where you bought the thing....

"What about the 20-year-olds? What will they do, when cars are no longer a thing you own?" In the US at least, some portion of youth would rather have a good smartphone: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/us/report-finds-americans-are-driving-less-led-by-youth.html In Oregon five years ago, I happened across a rather good show of the type in which proud car fans display their autos -- this one included antique and classic cars, muscle cars, hot rods, pretty much the gamut. And both those showing and attending were almost entirely geriatric. (Since then I have seen others where there were at least some young people in attendance, so the...

Empties are recycled through local council pickup. Ah, I wasn't referring to empties-for-recycling but empties-for-reuse, and I certainly want my deposits back. There's a law hereabouts making the shops take the multipath bottles of types they sell back and paying out their deposit. Regarding paper receipts: you cannot prove that you bought the thing elsewhere, you can prove that you bought a thing of the type elsewhere recently, and I have had unpleasant discussions with shop security when I was picking up a few things on my way home by bike about that. The way around that is telling one...